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VOA慢速英语2009-THIS IS AMERICA - What Modern America Expect

时间:2009-07-04 03:16:54

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(单词翻译)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty1.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we look at modern changes in the American father.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:
 
Robert Young, center, played father Jim Anderson on the television series "Father Knows Best."

Father's Day will be observed this year on Sunday, June twenty-first. This special day to honor and celebrate fathers has one hundred years of history behind it. In nineteen hundred and nine there was a woman named Sonora Dodd. She was in church at a service for Mother's Day, which is celebrated2 in May.

She thought about how difficult it had been for her father to raise six children all by himself. Her mother had died in childbirth, leaving her father to raise her and her five brothers and sisters. She decided3 that since there was a day honoring mothers, there should also be one recognizing fathers.

Sonora Dodd campaigned for the idea in her home state of Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. The first Father's Day was celebrated in June of nineteen ten in the city of Spokane. June was the month her father was born.

VOICE TWO:

At first Sonora Dodd had found little support. But in the years that followed, the idea of Father's Day spread across the country. It gained the approval of President Woodrow Wilson in nineteen sixteen. Yet he never signed an official proclamation, as he did two years earlier for the first Mother's Day.

President Calvin Coolidge in nineteen twenty-four added his support to a national observance of Father's Day. Then in nineteen sixty-six Lyndon Johnson declared it the third Sunday in June. Finally, in nineteen seventy-two, Richard Nixon made it permanent.

Other countries also celebrate Father's Day, some on the third Sunday in June, others on a different day.

VOICE ONE:

OK, let's be honest. As holidays go, Mother's Day in America is still a bigger deal than Father's Day. But millions of dads will get at least a card or a call or maybe a necktie or some other gift from their family. And much has changed since that first celebration in nineteen ten.

Kevin Roy is an associate professor in the Department of Family Science at the University of Maryland. Professor Roy says fathers today are expected to do more than just provide financially for the family's needs.

KEVIN ROY: "Cultural expectations have changed kind of dramatically, where now we have what's called a package deal. Which means that fathers are now expected to not only be providers but also caregivers for their kids."

VOICE TWO:

That change could be seen in the differences between two television fathers from different generations.

In the nineteen fifties and early sixties, Robert Young played Jim Anderson on the family comedy "Father Knows Best." He was an insurance salesman who worked hard to provide for his family. He did not cook or clean much -- that was his wife's job -- but he was a thoughtful father and husband.

FATHER: "Well, Kathy, I don't want a million dollars, or even a half a million. I only want enough money to have a nice home like we have, good food, good health…and enough money to help those less fortunate than ourselves from time to time."

DAUGHTER: "And enough to raise my allowance4 a little."

FATHER: "I might even arrange that."

VOICE ONE:
 
Bill Cosby played father Heathcliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show."

By the time "The Cosby Show" began in nineteen eighty-four, it was common in American society for mothers to work. Bill Cosby played Heathcliff Huxtable, a loving husband and father who was a doctor married to a lawyer.

They were partners not only in marriage but in managing the household and parenting their children. Here, Cliff Huxtable tries to teach his son an important life lesson.

FATHER: "How do you expect to get into college with grades like this?

SON: "No Problem. See I'm not going to college.

FATHER: "Damn5 right.

SON: "I am going to get through high school and then get a job like regular people.

FATHER: "Regular people?

SON: "Yeah you know...who work in the gas station, drive a bus, something like that.

FATHER: "So what you're saying is your mother and I shouldn't care if you get Ds because you don't need good grades to be regular people.

SON: "Right.

VOICE TWO:

In the nineteen seventies, Harry6 Chapin sang a song about a father who never seems to have time for his son. Then, when the father gets older and wants to connect with his son, the son is the one who is too busy. The song was called "Cat's in the Cradle7."

(HARRY CHAPIN – "CAT'S IN THE CRADLE")

VOICE ONE:
 
Reba McIntyre

In the early nineties, Reba McIntyre described a similar situation between a father and daughter in "The Greatest Man I Never Knew."

(REBA McINTYRE – "THE GREATEST MAN I NEVER KNEW")

VOICE TWO:

Mike Kaufman is a radio broadcaster based in Washington, D.C. He considers himself a modern dad who got involved in parenting early. He and his wife have a new baby boy.

MIKE KAUFMAN: "We both wanted to take on equal parts of the challenges, equal parts of the joy, equal parts of the burden and equal parts of the preparation. So we did things like take classes before the baby was born.

"We took a class on basic baby care, you know, and that will cover everything from how to change those diapers and how to give the baby a bath, and all those things which frankly8 we didn't know a whole lot about. We're both only-children and so we sort of started from scratch. We figured these classes would be a good thing to do to prepare."

VOICE ONE:

As only-children, they had no baby brothers or sisters to take care of, so every day for them is new. Like many other couples, the Kaufmans took pregnancy9 and childbirth classes together. They took another class that taught them life saving skills to use in an emergency.

So how does Mike's experience compare with the way he thinks of fathers when he was growing up?

MIKE KAUFMAN: "You have this vision of dads back then pacing in a waiting room, you know ready to hand out cigars, you know, as a congratulations. 'I just had a boy, just had a girl -- whatever, we have a new child!' Now dads, they go to all the appointments with their wives, prenatally, all the doctor checkups. They're in the delivery room when the baby is born. That's definitely something that's new."

VOICE TWO:

Today men are often more involved than their fathers were in parenting their children and helping10 with housework. Still, it is not always smooth sailing.

Julie Shields is the author of "How to Avoid the Mommy Trap: A Road Map for Sharing Parenting and Making It Work." She says creating a balance between partners takes work.

JULIE SHIELDS: "The problem is, in the old days when people had a traditional division of labor11, it was very clear as to who should do what. Mothers should stay home, be in charge of the house and, in fact, did much more housework than they do now, and be in charge of the children by and large. And fathers should go out to work and be gone most of the day and not be as involved in what is going on with the children, except maybe as a disciplinarian if things get to be too much."

VOICE ONE:

Author Julie Shields says couples today often have a hard time trying to decide how to share responsibilities. Women often talk about needing more help from their husbands, she says, yet some women have a hard time giving up control.

JULIE SHIELDS: "Once we try to get our husband to do something and he starts to do it, we critique the way he does it. And then a lot of times the men will pull back. So it's very important once you've given up something, to stay out of it and not fix it if it goes wrong."

When it comes to parenting, she says, men may not do things the same way that women do. The "Mommy Trap" author says that does not mean they are doing it wrong, just differently -- at least at first.

JULIE SHIELDS: "A lot of times fathers have to catch up to mothers. You just have to allow your husband to have that on-the-job training that women get."

VOICE TWO:

The Census12 Bureau says fathers regularly care for one-fourth of children of preschool age whose mothers have jobs outside the home. These fathers generally also have jobs. But in two thousand eight, the United States had an estimated one hundred forty thousand stay-at-home fathers.

These are men who have stayed out of the labor force for at least one year, mainly to raise children while their wives go to work. Stay-at-home dads are a small number compared to five million stay-at-home moms.

But right now, the recession13 seems to be adding to the number of fathers staying home with their kids. Job losses have been a lot higher for men than for women. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate for women was eight percent in May; for men it was ten and a half percent.

VOICE ONE:

Mike Stillwell is a stay-at-home dad by choice. He is also the head of a support group in the Washington area known as DC Metro14 Dads. He says the group has about four hundred fifty members. Most of them stay at home by choice, he says. But there are times when the decision is simply a question of economics15.

Mike Stillwell and his wife decided early that if the cost of child care got to be too much, one of them would quit work. That time came twelve years ago. Mike has been a stay-at-home-dad ever since. He says most of the dads in his group have the same responsibilities, questions and concerns that stay-at-home moms have.

MIKE STILLWELL: "The only thing that we try to stress is that a stay-at-home dad can do all the things a stay-at-home mom can do. I always like to joke with some of the new dads that come into the group that there's really only two things that a stay-at-home-dad can't do, and that's give birth and breastfeed."

(LUTHER VANDROSS – "DANCE WITH MY FATHER")

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by June Simms. Transcripts16, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you with Luther Vandross and his Grammy-winning song of the year from two thousand three, "Dance With My Father."


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 doughty Jk5zg     
adj.勇猛的,坚强的
参考例句:
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
2 celebrated iwLzpz     
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的
参考例句:
  • He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
  • The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。
3 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
4 allowance RLdyr     
n.津贴,补贴,零用钱
参考例句:
  • My monthly allowance is 50 yuan.我每月的津贴是50元。
  • I have to work to earn my allowance.我非得工作挣零用钱。
5 damn jnyzC     
int.该死,他妈的;vt.指责,贬斥,诅咒
参考例句:
  • Damn this useless typewriter!这台破打字机真该死!
  • I knew damn well what he was going to say.我非常清楚他要说什么。
6 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
7 cradle Vzsx0     
n.摇篮,策源地,支船架;vt.把...放在摇篮里
参考例句:
  • The baby was rocked to sleep in a cradle.婴儿在摇篮里被摇得睡着了。
  • Tokyo was the cradle of Japanese culture.东京是日本文化的发源地。
8 frankly fsXzcf     
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说
参考例句:
  • To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说,我一点也不赞成这个主意。
  • Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说,我不反对改革。
9 pregnancy lPwxP     
n.怀孕,怀孕期
参考例句:
  • Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
  • Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。
10 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
11 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
参考例句:
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
12 census arnz5     
n.(官方的)人口调查,人口普查
参考例句:
  • A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
  • The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。
13 recession GAozC     
n.(工商业的)衷退(期),萧条(期)
参考例句:
  • Manufacturing fell sharply under the impact of the recession.受到经济萧条的影响,制造业急剧衰退。
  • A rise in interest rates plunged Britain deeper into recession.利率的提高导致英国经济更加萧条。
14 metro XogzNA     
n.地铁;adj.大都市的;(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国,主要经营零售)
参考例句:
  • Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗?
  • The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。
15 economics grzxZ     
n.经济学,经济情况
参考例句:
  • He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学,该学科是很重要的。
  • One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。
16 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

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